Lew: No, the mandate isn't a tax

Never mind what the Supreme Court said — the White House is doubling down on its insistence that the individual mandate isn’t a tax.

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning, White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew said the mandate penalty is not a tax and the Supreme Court ruling didn’t make it so. And in any event, he said, very few people will have to pay it.

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“First of all, the law is clear, it’s called a penalty. Second of all, what the Supreme Court ruled is that the law is constitutional. Actually, they didn’t call it a tax. They said it was using the power under the constitution that permits it. It was not labeled,” Lew said.

“This is a penalty. It’s something that only 1 percent of people who can afford insurance and choose not to get it will pay. Everyone who has insurance, everyone who chooses to buy insurance will not pay it. What they’re going to get is security — they’re going to get lower premiums and better health care. That’s a good thing for the American people.”

In the commercial break that followed the exchange, an ad paid for by Americans for Prosperity called the Obama health care law “one of the biggest tax increases in history.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 9:56 a.m. on July 1, 2012.